Anaesthesia for an emergent caesarean section in a patient with acute transverse myelitis

Abstract

We present a 32-year-old G1P0 woman at 32 weeks and two days gestation with new onset paraplegia, hyperreflexia, and sensory disturbance that gradually progressed over the past month and acutely worsened over the last 24 hours. MRI revealed a demyelinating process of the thoracic spine and diffuse cervicothoracic cord oedema. After 7 days, her foetus developed recurrent heart rate decelerations and an emergent caesarean section was performed. On airway exam, she was Mallampati 3 with a short thyromental distance. She reported fasting overnight and into the morning. Our choice was between performing neuraxial anaesthesia in the setting of an acute demyelinating process of her spinal cord versus general anaesthesia on a patient at risk of aspiration with a potentially difficult airway. Given the potential complications of neuraxial anaesthesia, we utilized rocuronium to perform a rapid sequence induction of general anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation.

Keywords

• Acute transverse myelitis
• emergent caesarean section
• general anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation
• neuraxial anaesthesia